Noir Series Sometimes the best way to paint light is to paint the dark. The objects in my still life paintings are placed in front of a window, back lit by the natural light from outside. The back light illuminates the edge of the object that I’m working with – creating a line of light around the object. I’ve used black or gray to paint those darker areas, while leaving the color underneath as that lighted edge. The darker blacks and grays provide an intense contrast to that color edge thereby making a more intense light, which is closer to the lighted edge that I see.